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[Voice/Action]
[Today is a good day for serious business, apparently. There's a certain something he's been putting off for a while, and after one-too-many dreams interrupting his sleep, he's had enough: this morning when Billy wakes up, the first thing he does is jot out a note in the journal-]
[Private to Ben Grimm]
Hey, would it be okay if I swung by to ask you a few things?
[He'll work through his morning routine until he gets a response, after which he'll go for a visit and get a hell of a lot more than he bargained for.
After that, his mood for the day is drastically altered; he'll skip out on school, trying to sort out his feelings on the matter. Tommy's still AWOL, and he's trying not to worry Teddy, but what he's just been told has really got him thinking- about people, and heroes, and the unfairness of mankind in general. And eventually he'll just go ahead and return to his journal for it. He's kind of in over his head here.]
[Open to All]
I know Luceti's full of heroes- seems kind of a standard trait for most of us, for whatever reason. Back on my world, super-humans aren't that uncommon, and in general they're revered for everything they do for the world. Some of them were born that way, and some of them are from other planets, and some were altered to get their powers, and some have a lot of talent or skill instead of powers. But they're all considered to be super heroes. There's bad guys, too- just as diverse and unique as the heroes they fight. People fear them and celebrate their defeat.
There's another group, though... humans who got their powers because of evolution. It's much more natural, in a lot of ways. Some are heroes, some are villains. Some are just trying to get by without becoming one or the other. But regular humans fear them, and hate them for it, even if they save the world just as much as the heroes they love. They're called criminals or monsters, no matter how innocent they might be.
[He hesitates- it's probably obvious to some, what he's talking about, and he's not sure if he should lock it from the mutant population, or apologize, or something, but it relates to them even if it's not by name. Hiding it wouldn't be right.
In the end he just leaves it be.]
...Sorry for the ramble. But it's not fair, and... I just can't understand why. Why hate one and love the other, when they're basically the same?
[Private to Ben Grimm]
Hey, would it be okay if I swung by to ask you a few things?
[He'll work through his morning routine until he gets a response, after which he'll go for a visit and get a hell of a lot more than he bargained for.
After that, his mood for the day is drastically altered; he'll skip out on school, trying to sort out his feelings on the matter. Tommy's still AWOL, and he's trying not to worry Teddy, but what he's just been told has really got him thinking- about people, and heroes, and the unfairness of mankind in general. And eventually he'll just go ahead and return to his journal for it. He's kind of in over his head here.]
[Open to All]
I know Luceti's full of heroes- seems kind of a standard trait for most of us, for whatever reason. Back on my world, super-humans aren't that uncommon, and in general they're revered for everything they do for the world. Some of them were born that way, and some of them are from other planets, and some were altered to get their powers, and some have a lot of talent or skill instead of powers. But they're all considered to be super heroes. There's bad guys, too- just as diverse and unique as the heroes they fight. People fear them and celebrate their defeat.
There's another group, though... humans who got their powers because of evolution. It's much more natural, in a lot of ways. Some are heroes, some are villains. Some are just trying to get by without becoming one or the other. But regular humans fear them, and hate them for it, even if they save the world just as much as the heroes they love. They're called criminals or monsters, no matter how innocent they might be.
[He hesitates- it's probably obvious to some, what he's talking about, and he's not sure if he should lock it from the mutant population, or apologize, or something, but it relates to them even if it's not by name. Hiding it wouldn't be right.
In the end he just leaves it be.]
...Sorry for the ramble. But it's not fair, and... I just can't understand why. Why hate one and love the other, when they're basically the same?
[Action]
[And then he stops, clamping his mouth shut and setting his jaw, grabbing his coffee cup and abruptly standing up.]
...Come on, let's talk in my apartment.
[Action]
All right.
[He rises to his feet, taking up his coffee cup.
That Billy seems to feel there's insufficient privacy in this area leaves him feeling rather nervous as well.]
[Action]
Sorry about that. We've got a neighbour that likes to spy on conversations. The kitchens in this building are never private.
[Action]
Ah, I see.
[He frowns slightly.]
Perhaps we ought to have moved into here sooner.
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
[He shrugs; he doesn't want to make a big deal about it, even if there's still a bit of underlying irritation; he hasn't forgiven Robin for trying to interrogate Teddy, and he knows that he's apparently not trusted for his magic - and for his association with Loki. At this point he doesn't really give a damn what Robin thinks about Loki coming over like this.
Back to what he was saying, though...]
...I'm one of them- a mutant. That's why I've got powers. But I'm also related to two of the most dangerous and hated mutants in the world.
[See why he didn't want to be overheard?]
[Action]
He nods, mouth curving in a bitter smile.]
Being different or having bad taste in parentage is normally enough invitation for abuse. Having both factors is quite terrible.
[He has reason to know this.]
[Action]
[Sometimes being adopted is cool, bro. Isn't that a delightful knife twist?]
Something happened, though... something bad. And I'm pretty sure it was because she lost us. Now I don't know what to think...
[It's still exciting, yes, but there's a level of worry and uncertainty he hadn't felt before. What caused it to happen? Could it happen again? Could it happen to him?
Is this why Tommy seemed so unsure of him when he'd first arrived, despite the fact that they'd found her? So many questions, and now Tommy isn't around to ask.]
[Action]
Some of that, he can identify with, like the truth making certain things become clear. But it was never a source of delight for him.]
What happened, exactly?
[Action]
That's a lot of power to place in the hands of someone he's grown up viewing as a super villain.]
...If... if I tell you this... it means I'd be trusting you not to tell anyone else about it. No one. Not ever.
[His lifts his head then, focusing on Loki, his expression uncertain and faintly pleading.
Can I trust you?
It's a bit scary, actually- that it's even a question. That the answer isn't automatically "no".]
[Action]
Above all things, I love secrets.
[Action]
My power... it's the same as hers. She's so strong, though- she has the power to change the world, literally. And back home... she did. Something happened to her, and with just a few words, the entire planet was remade just the way she wanted it.
[Action]
And like Rogue (though not in the same way), he rather likes Billy, feels a certain almost kinship with him for all that he's mortal.]
I see.
[And then he thinks, it's a good thing he's trying to teach Billy better control. Because that's not the sort of thing anyone wants happening higgledy-piggledy.
He doesn't seem in the least bit frightened or upset by this revelation, though. Just the same curiosity as always.]
Did it eventually get put back the way it was?
[Action]
[He fidgets, twisting his fingers together a bit.]
She said, "No more mutants." And nearly all the mutants in the world lost their powers, just like that.
[Action]
[He nods again.]
Another thing that many would find frightening or alternatively seek to control, I imagine.
[Quietly, the thought of someone yanking his magic from him is a terrifying one, but he hides that effortlessly. That is not an issue here, and his will is quite strong, as is his grasp on reality.]
[Action]
[Hence the acceptance of lessons from a certain master of magic...]
She went missing after that. No one's seen her since. There's so many questions I wanted to ask her before- about me and my brother, how we were born, what happened to make her lose us, how we even exist now... and now there's this. I'm not sure what to think anymore.
[Action]
Loki turns his cup meditatively in his hands.]
I would think that there is always more to a story such as this. But you already seem quite aware of that fact.
[One corner of his mouth pulls slightly.]
People like us are... not understood. We do not see the world in the same way others do.
[Action]
I used to wish for that, sometimes. Years ago, when I was getting crap from kids at school, or trying to figure out the whole "I like guys" thing, or seeing how many people in the world are suffering all the time... I used to think, "I wish I could change this." Shift everything into how I thought it should be, change it to make it right... lots of people want that.
[He clutches his cup tightly enough to make his knuckles go white, and he's lucky he doesn't have super-strength like Teddy- he'd probably have broken it.]
No one should have this kind of power. Even good people. It's... too heavy.
[Action]
[He raises his eyebrows.] One might also say that no one should have the power to send an army to its death. To take the life of another, and anyone with a butter knife and reasonable reflexes can do that.
Orders of magnitude take care of themselves, Billy. Everyone has power. The question is what use they make of it, and to what end. Piss it away or break the wheel of fate. There is no right and wrong. There is ultimately just us.
Re: [Action]
...but Loki has a point. A good one. It's an uncomfortable but undeniable truth.
Just us.]
Have you ever been afraid of your own power?
[Action]
[He turns his mug slowly in his hands. How much to say?]
There were many things in my youth that I wished were different about me. But that was never one of them. Magic has... saved me, I suppose. It is a tool, but it is also so much more. [It makes him greater than himself. It reminds him that while he is often alone, he is still connected to something in a deep and fundamental way.] I think without it, I might run mad.
[Action]
[His gaze is fixed to the table again - or the cooling coffee, downcast either way - his thumb drumming lightly against the handle. He's been afraid of his powers before, of the severe lack of control he used to have and the pain and terror he'd felt when he nearly killed Kesler the day they'd manifested. He doesn't know how frightening changing the entire world could be, but his imagination can take it pretty far.]
She got like that because she lost the people she loved. Something drove her into a corner. I think about losing my family, my friends... Teddy... and I just...
[He shuts his eyes, unable to finish. The thought of it is just- it's more frightening than his magic, a nightmare of the imagination. The life they live? The battles they fight?
It's so very, very easy to die.]
Re: [Action]
[Quietly:] I know that you will run mad without it.
[He turns his mug in his hands.] I do not know what to tell you, Billy. That which we care for inevitably is taken from us if we are not strong enough to prevent it. Sometimes even if we are. [His lips pull in a humorless smile.] And sometimes it isn't even real to begin with.
Ours is a grand sort of power. It works best when we can plan ahead and prevent such things from happening. But sometimes they happen anyway.
[Action]
[It's a depressing truth, admittedly, but trying to deny it would just make it worse. He just... has to figure out how to prevent it from happening, that's all. Figure out how it happened in the first place, while he's at it.]
Is there... some kind of spell that could protect someone against mind control?
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